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Nick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | life@gainesvilletimes.com
She (Times
gainesvilletimes.com
Monday, December 10, 2018
SOUND
collection
Forsyth County man has some 60,000
records, 25 antique music-playing devices
Photos by KELLY WHITMIRE I Forsyth County News
Forsyth County resident Lamar Pruitt looks at his approximately 25 machines
that play music, including Victrolas, gramophones and a juke box. Pruitt has an
impressive collection of nearly 60,000 records and thousands of Coca-Cola bottles
and products, too.
BY KELLY WHITMIRE
Forsyth County News
As Lamar Pruitt cranked a
handle on his Victor Vic III, a
phonograph produced in the
early 20th century, and dropped
the machines, the room in his
Cumming home filled with the
sound of “Golden Slippers” by
Vernon Dalhart and Carson Rob
inson, a gospel tune recorded in
the 1920s, played from a shellac
disk, a predecessor to modern
vinyl records.
“You have to wind it
up,” Pruitt explained. “No
electricity.”
While many may have never
heard — or even heard of — a
phonograph or other antique
devices, the Vic III is one of
about 25 of the machines that
Pruitt owns. He has phono
graphs, machines like the Vic III
with a horn and hand crank, and
Victrolas, larger players with
internal horns inside a wooden
cabinet making it more of a
piece of furniture.
Each of the machines has its
own story and intricacies, and
most are filled with records.
Pruitt said his first player
belonged to either his grandfa
ther or uncle and aunt before it
came into his mother’s posses
sion. Pruitt said he decided to
take it after a business owner
made an offer to his mother he
wasn’t thrilled with.
“She said, ‘This lady down
below us wants it for a bar,”’
Pruitt said. “I said, ‘No, I don’t
want to do that. I’ll come and get
it. Me and my wife went down
there and got it and cleaned it up
real nice.”
Along with the machines,
Pruitt owns an impressive
record collection, a multitude of
Coke items, including some over
100 years old, and a museum’s
worth of other antiques ranging
from furniture to musical instru
ments to farming equipment.
By his own estimation, Pruitt
owns upward of 60,000 records,
many still unopened.
“I think I counted them one
time, I had over 20,000 45s and
about that many of the 78s, and
probably more than that of long
plays (LPs),” Pruitt said.
A collection of that size takes
time, and Pruitt said he first
began collecting more than 60
years ago with his first wife,
Patsy, a hobby the pair contin
ued until she died.
“When we first started, that
was right after we married, I
guess, in the ’50s,” he said. “And
my wife and my brother’s wife,
to get a good deal on groceries,
they’d go to Gainesville to get
them. If they had a dime or a
quarter left over, they went by
the dime store and picked up a
record. You just had to do what
you could back then, but later
on, it got out of hand.”
Some might remember the
pair from the Cumming Coun
try Fair & Festival, where he
and Patsy had a booth and their
names and the iconic Victor
Talking Machine Co., the com
pany who produced the Victrola.
The sign now hangs in the same
room as the larger part of his
Forsyth County resident Lamar Pruitt plays an Edison cylinder record, a design which predates disc-shaped records.
Forsyth County resident Lamar Pruitt’s collection of
approximately 60,000 records is heavy on country and gospel
music, like Elvis. He also has many soda bottles, some more
than 100 years old.
‘I really don’t look for too much anymore
because I’m running out of room. But I
do look at records every once in a while
to see if there is something I think I
don’t have.’
Lamar Pruitt
Forsyth County collector
collection.
Pruitt’s collection is heavy
on country music and gospel,
with artists such as Elvis, Hank
Williams, Johnny Cash and the
Chuck Wagon Gang.
As a collector, he also sold
records, and many are still on
displays fit for a record store.
“Most of this right here are
bluegrass, and there’s some
really, really good stuff there,”
Pruitt said. “Most of them
are just like new. If they’re
scratched up, I don’t want them
myself.”
Interestingly, a good part of
his collection is picture records
meant more for being seen
rather than heard and bearing
images of artists, college sports
teams, movies and others.
“Back I guess in the ’80s is
when you could find most of
them like that. That’s when the
picture disks came out,” he said.
“They didn’t (take any) time
until they were gone. ”
Some of the more interest
ing parts of his collection come
from Edison Records, founded
by Thomas Edison.
In his extensive collection,
Pruitt has Edison disc records,
which are much thicker than
most records, up to a quarter-
inch thick, and have to be
played on one of the company’s
machines, a competitor to the
Victrola.
Pruitt also owns Edison
Records unlike any other kind
of record.
Whereas most records are a
flat disk, Pruitt also has a num
ber of cylinder records, with the
groove on the outer edge.
“This one, it is different,”
said Pruitt, adding after play
ing a brief example of its music,
“that’s kind of odd.”
While his record collection
is impressive, and came first,
Pruitt also owns a collection of
Coca-Cola products and mer
chandise including whistles,
toys, cups and other collectibles.
Of course, he has thousands
of bottles of different sodas,
including special Coke bottles
commemorating events from
sports teams to local events to
anniversaries of the company
and almost anything in between.
A significant number of bot
tles date back to the 1910s and
1920s.
That collection, Pruitt said,
started when his father-in-law
ran a store in town.
“What they would do is they
would save me older bottles
when they came in,” he said.
“So I got a lot of stuff that way,
then my family gave me stuff.
Coke used to put out a lot of good
stuff.”
These days, Pruitt said he
doesn’t add as much to either
his Coke or record collections,
but that doesn’t mean he has
stopped entirely.
“I really don’t look for too
much anymore because I’m run
ning out of room,” Pruitt said.
“But I do look at records every
once in a while to see if there is
something I think I don’t have.”
